Taiwan's Tseng Chun-hsin boys' tennis world champion: ITF

2018/12/11 22:13:53

Tseng Chun-hsin (曾俊欣); Image taken from ITF Tennis' Twitter page.

Taipei, Dec. 11 (CNA) Taiwan's world No. 1 boys' tennis player, 17-year-old Tseng Chun-hsin (曾俊欣), has been honored with a 2018 International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Champion award, according to a statement released Tuesday by the federation.

Established in 1978 as one of the biggest tennis honors, ITF's annual junior world champion award was secured by Tseng for his stellar performance this season that made him the first Taiwanese ever to receive the award since Yang Tsung-hua (楊宗樺) won a decade ago.

Tseng won back-to-back Grand Slam titles -- the Roland Garros Junior French Championships and the Wimbledon Junior Championships, to finish the year at No. 1 in the boys junior rankings, the ITF website said.

"It is an amazing feeling to finish the year as world No. 1 and ITF World Champion," he said adding that "I think I had a really good year. Winning the Wimbledon and Roland Garros boys' singles titles are some of the best moments I have experienced so far."

Apart from his superb clinical display of tennis this year, the teenager also had his fair share of disappointment, including a loss to American Sebastian Korda in straight sets in the Junior Australian Open final in Melbourne in January, the statement said.

Tseng suffered another disappointing loss in the final to American Brandon Nakashima at the ITF Junior Masters in Chengdu in October, the statement added.

Despite the losses, he showed his dominance on the boys courts in 2018 and also "flexed his muscles" in the professional arena to serve out wins at the Vietnam F1 Futures, Portugal F9 Futures and Chinese Taipei F2 Futures, the statement noted.

Speaking on what his plans are for next year, Tseng said that "it also gives me confidence going into the professional game. The main goal heading into 2019 is to train well and become stronger, both mentally and physically."